


When even your issues have issues

by ihavenoexcuse4this



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: David‘s parents are just mentioned, Fever, Fever Dreams, Hurt/Comfort, I don‘t really know what I‘m doing tbh, Nightmares, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 17:22:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16520726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ihavenoexcuse4this/pseuds/ihavenoexcuse4this
Summary: It is basically just a fluffy/angsty fic about David getting sick and not knowing how to deal with that





	When even your issues have issues

**Author's Note:**

  * For [taylor_tut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylor_tut/gifts).



> This is a really, really early birthday present for the amazing @taylor_tut, who got me into this fandom in the first place and does amazing work!

„Good morning, Gwen! Today is going to be amazing!“, David cheers, even if he can not quite hide the slight scratchiness of his voice. He has not been feeling his best for the past couple of days and it seems to be getting worse instead of better – but he absolutely does not have time for this. It is also kind of stressing him out that he is sick at camp, because when he is at home, he usually just curls up somewhere dark and quiet and tries not to bother anyone unless his temperature surpasses 105 °F. He cannot do that here, because he has responsibilities and he needs to prove to the kids that camp can be fun. He sighs. 

“David.”, Gwen grumbles sleepily. “Haven’t we already talked about you not coming in here to wake me up when the sun has not completely risen yet?” She sits up in bed and squints at him. “You are looking even paler than you normally do. You okay?”

“Absolutely!” David hesitates for a fraction of a second, before smiling awkwardly. “It’s hike-day, and that means that we need to be up super early. The campers are already up.”

Gwen groans dramatically, letting her head fall into her hands. “Fine, fine. I am getting up. I just need a second.” She pauses. “You would tell me if anything was wrong, right?”

“I… Nothing is wrong.” David insists. “I will be at the mess hall, see you there.”

“You are avoiding my question.” 

“No, I’m not.”

“You have totally been hiding that you are sick since, like, Monday, and I don’t understand why you do not just tell me.” Gwen looks frustrated now and David visibly deflates, because he remembers this from his childhood. People always get mad when he is sick and he hates his stupid immune system for betraying him like that again. He does not want to upset Gwen or the kids just because he cannot handle a bit of a fever, so he shrugs carefully. His head is pounding in rhythm with his fast-beating heart.

“I’m not hiding anything. I feel fine.” His voice does kind of break in the middle of his reassurances, but he thinks that it will suffice. 

Apparently, it does not, because now, Gwen looks downright mad. “You know what, do whatever you want. I’m sure that you know what you are doing.” She jumps out of bed with seemingly newfound energy. “Just don’t complain about it later, if it gets worse.” She starts aggressively packing her backpack with things she needs for hiking. 

Tears spring into David’s eyes, it makes Gwen’s eyes soften slightly, and she pauses. “Sorry. I just don’t get why you feel like you can’t tell me about this.”

David feels himself flush, because Gwen is onto him. She is testing him, and he desperately tries not to cave. No one wants to put up with him when he is sick – it has always been that way.

“I don’t. I am alright, promise.”

Gwen’s face becomes stony again. “Fine. Go have breakfast; I will meet you in the mess hall in a few minutes.” 

David nods tiredly, before slowly closing the door to Gwen’s cabin.

****

“What the hell is up with you?” Max narrows his eyes at David from where he is hiking beside him. “You are falling behind.”

“Nothing is up.”, David wheezes. His pounding head has turned into something that feeling a bit like a migraine and his lung is burning. He feels really, really weird. Like, he is not sure if he ever felt this bad before. Maybe when he was nine years old, and his dad made him go to school with what would later turn out to be pneumonia. “Just taking in the beautiful view.”

“You’re sweating.” Max states. “You look like you are about to, I don’t know, fall over and die or something.” 

“That’s ridiculous. I’m fine, don’t worry.”

“I never worry about you.” Max states resolutely. “I worry about all of us not being able to find back to camp if you keel over and die. You can do that as soon as we are back.”

“Well, I can’t, because we have a lot of fun activities planned for today.”

“That is not at all what I meant.”, Max grumbles, and he does look a bit worried. “Just… take some meds or something.”

****

They get back from their hike at lunchtime and David really tries to eat something, but his stomach feels weird and crampy, and he feels way too hot. He picks at his sandwich listlessly, while propping his head up on one hand.

“Can we play football later?”, Harrison asks from across him, mouth full of some kind of unidentifiable substance – maybe mashed potatoes, but David would not put money on it. “It is way too cold outside to go swimming.” 

“Sure.” David says lamely, even though he does not feel cold at all. 

“Amazing.” Dolph cheers from the other side of the table. “Can you join se team I will play in?” 

“Of course Dolph.” David promises, when he would really just like to crawl into bed and not talk to anyone until he starts to feel… more human again. The kids starts arguing at this and David sighs, blinking heavily. 

Gwen and Max stare at him from across the room and he waves weakly, watching Max whisper something to Gwen and her nodding grimly in response. He swallows thickly, feeling and seeing his hand shaking as he raises his glass of water. He drinks in little sips, not knowing how to act under the watchful eyes of his co-counselor and Max. He helps space kid with cutting up his meat and looks up again to see that they are still looking at him. He suddenly does not feel hot anymore. Quite the opposite actually – he feels ice cold and he notices his whole body starting to shake like a leaf. 

This is when Gwen starts to walk over to him, her eyes never leaving him. “I think you should lay down.”, she says quietly. “You really don’t look well.”

“Can everyone just stop pestering me about this?!”, he snaps before he can stop himself. Illness has always been a private affair for him and it is making him nervous that people are noticing that he is unwell. 

“Why are you acting so weird about this?” Gwen looks a bit hurt and David feels instantly sorry about being snappy. 

“There is nothing to act weird about!” David says softly, before standing up quick enough to make his head spin for a second. “I will be on the activities field, preparing everything for later.”

He is gone before Gwen can say anything else.

****

David feels really terrible by the time dinner rolls around and he is glad that he can go to sleep soon, because he does not know how long he can keep functioning. Everything hurts and he keeps coughing so hard that it leaves him breathless for minutes after. He is also quite sure that his fever has taken a turn for the worst and he knows that he should probably eat – or at least drink – something, but he does not really feel like doing so. 

Max and Gwen are still watching his every step and the other campers have started to look at him weirdly as well. Even Nurf has asked him about his wellbeing, which is somewhat alarming in itself. 

He cannot wait until everyone is done eating, so that he can finally curl up in his bed. 

****

David wakes up to light shining through his window, but he does not have any energy left to care about oversleeping. The blurry figure of Gwen is looming over him and… oh god is she saying something to him?

“…-vid? David!” Gwen comes into focus and she is looking really freaked out – David cannot quite figure out why though. “He is really out of it.”, she says to someone behind her. David’s eyes flutter closed. 

When he opens his eyes again after what feels like a mere moment, the situation around him has changed. He is sitting up in his bed, held up by Gwen. His shirt sticks to his sweaty torso and his head hurts so bad, that he thinks it could explode at any moment. 

“You need to take those pills David.” someone says beside him in a really shaky voice and he sees Max, kneeling on his bed, holding up a bottle of water and two white, tiny capsules. Max looks like he is crying and David should probably do something about this, but he feels himself zoning out again, eyes rolling around without really seeing anything. 

****

“What the fuck!” Max sounds really freaked out when David falls unconscious again and Gwen does not know how to reassure the boy when he does not exactly feel calm herself. Max had insisted to join her when she decided to see how David was feeling when the counselor had failed to show up at breakfast. “Can we please just call an ambulance?”

“I already spoke to the doctor over the phone.” Gwen sighs, not ready to deal with an overprotective child on top of a scarily sick co-counselor. “You heard what he said. We just need to get his fever down and only bring him in if he is not any better in the evening.”

“He is delirious!” Max snaps. “He did not even recognize me when I first-“ He does not finish his sentence, but Gwen knows how much it scared Max when David started talking nonsense. 

“Just… give his body some time to fight this, okay? A fever is not always a bad thing and it’s probably this high because he overexerted himself yesterday.”

“I watched a show about things like that. He will overheat and die and you are doing nothing about it besides putting weird wet towels around him!”, Max all but screams accusingly.

He noise wakes David up. “’M sorry.”, he whimpers. “I don’t… I did not do it on purpose.”

“We know David.” Gwen says softly, having started to just go with David’s delirious conversations. Max is starting to look really scared instead of angry again. “This is not cool Gwen. He does not even know where he is.”

“Please don’t make me go to school.” David whispers hoarsely before he starts coughing and wheezing. “I really- I don’t feel good, dad. I won’t bother you at all, I swear.”

“Not your dad, David.” Gwen mumbles. They have had similar conversations multiple times already and Gwen is really starting to hate David’s family. “It’s Gwen and Max. Just us. We are here to take care of you – there is no need to worry, okay?”

David’s eyes have already fluttered close again at this point, and the whole situation is horrible. Gwen shakes him gently, and his eyes open again. “Pills, David. Then sleep.” 

“I think I’m sick Gwen.” David whispers, conspiratorially and Gwen chuckles humorlessly. “Yeah, I think we have established that.” She takes the pills out of Max’ hands. “Open your mouth and take those, you will feel better, okay?”

“K.” David mumbles, before swallowing the pills with the water Max shoves in his direction. Then, he goes limp again. 

****

Max sits at David’s bedside when he wakes up, doing something on his phone at which he scowls down. It is dark outside. There is something wet on his forehead and down at his chest and feet. David coughs weakly and Max’ head snaps up. “You finally with me for real?” he asks, and David has no idea what Max means by that. He says so.

“It means, that you have been delirious for the better part of the day because you let your fever get so high that we were afraid that it will… cook your brain or something.” Max snaps. “Don’t ever do that again.”

David blinks slowly. “I’m sorry.” 

“And stop apologizing for being sick. I don’t know what is up with that shit, but it does not make any sense whatsoever.” Max lip wobbles, before he bites down hard on it. “How are you feeling?”

David thinks about this for a moment. He still feels pretty bad. “Better.” It’s not a lie. Max narrows his eyes suspiciously. He hands David a bottle of water and two white pills. “Remind me never to ask you that again as it is absolutely pointless.” 

David swallows the pills and drinks most of the water that is left in the bottle. He does not comment Max’ statement, because he does not really have anything to say.

“I was really worried, you know?” Max takes the almost empty bottle back from David, staring at his feet. 

David smiles woozily. “I thought you never worry about me.”

Max ignores him pointedly. “You were convinced that your dad was in the room with us. Kept talking to him as if he was real and forcing you out of the house with a fever that could easily kill you.”

“Oh.”

“Oh?” Max demands forcibly. “That’s it? You nearly die right in front of me because you’re to selfishly self-sacrificing to take a few measly days off work and sleep it off, all the while sobbing like a baby with teething problems and freaking us out and that is all you have to say for yourself? Oh?”

“I did not always have that great of a childhood, but it is okay.” David mumbles shakily – Max did not need to hear about his relationship with his dad. “I’m doing fine now.”

“Yeah, I saw that.”

David sighs, because Max is way too grown up for his age. “I should not have let it get this far – I am just… But that should not be your problem. I will deal with this, okay? I’m sorry for freaking you out. I will do better, I promise.”

“Just tell someone the next time you are that sick. That would be great.” Max pauses for a moment. “Gwen is at the pharmacy, she will be back in a while and I’m sure that she has to say something about this too.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Max pauses. “You are really feeling better, right?”, he asks, worriedly. “Do you swear?”

“I swear. Thank you for taking care of me.” David smiles. “I appreciate it.”

Max snorts, leaning back in his chair. “Don’t get used to it.”


End file.
